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<br>Language: Scientifically speaking
<br><a href="http://www.nature.com/nature/links/020606/020606-5.html">http://www.nature.com/nature/links/020606/020606-5.html</a>
<p>In a brief review Nowak et al. take on the task of covering 40 years
of
<br>computational linguistics - the science combining the methods of linguistics
<br>and computer science to study language, particularly its evolution.
Their main
<br>conclusion is that there is a logical necessity of genetically determined
<br>components of human language. The field is notably contentious, and
any new
<br>synthesis is likely to stimulate heated debate.
<br>
<p>Computational and evolutionary aspects of language
<br>MARTIN A. NOWAK, NATALIA L. KOMAROVA & PARTHA NIYOGI
<br>Nature 417, 611-617 (6 June 2002)
<p>Language is our legacy. It is the main evolutionary contribution of
humans, and
<br>perhaps the most interesting trait that has emerged in the past 500
million
<br>years. Understanding how darwinian evolution gives rise to human language
<br>requires the integration of formal language theory, learning theory
and
<br>evolutionary dynamics. Formal language theory provides a mathematical
<br>description of language and grammar. Learning theory formalizes the
task of
<br>language acquisition-it can be shown that no procedure can learn an
<br>unrestricted set of languages. Universal grammar specifies the restricted
set
<br>of languages learnable by the human brain. Evolutionary dynamics can
be
<br>formulated to describe the cultural evolution of language and the biological
<br>evolution of universal grammar.
<p><a href="http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v417/n6889/abs/nature00771_fs.html">http://www.nature.com/cgi-taf/DynaPage.taf?file=/nature/journal/v417/n6889/abs/nature00771_fs.html</a>
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